NHL admits blown call led to Panther loss

— The defensive-minded Panthers are still offensively challenged, so that makes it even more difficult to overcome game-deciding mistakes by the referees.

Colin Campbell, the NHL's executive vice president of hockey operations and supervisor of officials, admitted that poor calls by referees may have led directly to two of the Panthers' four losses after Tuesday night's glaring non-call of goaltender interference by Maple Leafs enforcer Colton Orr resulted in a goal and 3-1 loss.

"It doesn't happen often, but it was certainly a call you wish was made differently. When you look at the fact it's not March; it's not the playoffs, but still two points is two points. Florida's been in position before where one point made the difference in the playoffs or not.

"It's tough anytime you get caught in a situation like this where a penalty appears to be obvious, and in this case it directly led to a goal being scored, and perhaps on this play … it would have been a two-minute penalty assessed as well."

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Campbell said that rookie referee Francis Charron was by the net and blew the call, while Stephen Walkom, the former director of NHL officials, was stationed by the blue line but was screened. Terry Gregson, the current director of officials, was at the game and spoke to both refs afterward. They agreed they wished they'd had another opportunity to call the penalty.

Just as Brent started to shoot, the 6-foot-3, 229-pound Orr, known more for dishing out punches than winning goals, rammed into Clemmensen, who went down in a heap. The puck glanced off Orr's skate for the go-ahead goal with 8:58 to play.

Orr, who claimed he was pushed into Clemmensen, has 10 goals in seven seasons. He had a career-high 239 penalty minutes last year.

Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson admitted after the game that "Colton took the goalie out. It should've been a penalty, to be honest."

Campbell said the play isn't reviewable. Replay in hockey is only used to determine whether the puck is in the net legally.

"Obviously it's a game-changer," Panthers defenseman Bryan McCabe said. "It was a 1-1 game, probably going to overtime. They missed a call, blatant interference. Clemmer had no chance to stop that puck."

With the Panthers pressing, Phil Kessel iced the game with a breakaway goal with 2:24 remaining.

Asked what he would do if such a call came in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, "I would go on a long vacation the next day. And quickly," Campbell said.

Panthers center Stephen Weiss is missing a few teeth after taking a puck in the mouth during last Saturday's win over the Islanders, but he's not blaming his missing offense on that.

"If it was easy to score you'd see guys score 90 goals a year, but it's not," said Weiss, who had a career-high 28 goals last season but has just one goal and an assist in seven games. "Just got to stick with it, keep shooting, go to the net and hopefully you get a bounce."

Weiss isn't alone. Chris Higgins, who has three seasons of 20-plus goals, and Michael Frolik, who's coming off two consecutive 21-goal seasons, have zero goals between them.

"He's in that group of guys. Their hearts [are] in the right place but this is a results business," said Panthers coach Pete DeBoer after practice Wednesday at the Bell Sensplex facility, not far from the Scotiabank Place.

"While they're our most skilled players, when you put them on the spectrum of skill in the league, they're not at the top. They have to play an honest, hard-working game to produce." …